The rapid expansion of information service and data processing industries has resulted in a need for computer systems to manage and store large amounts of data. As an example, financial service companies such as banks, mutual fund companies or the like often operate complex data processing systems that require access to many hundreds of gigabytes or even terabytes of data and files stored within high capacity data storage systems. Data storage system developers have responded to these types of data storage requirements by integrating large capacity data storage systems, data communications devices and computer systems into networks called “storage networks” or “storage area networks” (SANs.) A storage area network is a collection of data storage systems that are networked with a number of host computer systems that operate as servers to access data stored in the data storage systems on behalf of client computers that request data from the servers. Typically, storage area networks support high-speed acquisitions of data so that the host servers are able to promptly retrieve and store data from the data storage system.
Conventional storage area network management applications provide conventional graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that enable network managers to graphically manage, control and configure various types of hardware and software resources associated with a corresponding managed storage area network. For example, one conventional network management storage application generates a graphical user interface utilized by a network manager to graphically select, interact with, and manage local or remote devices and associated software processes associated with the storage area network. More specifically, based on use of the graphical user interface in combination with an input device such as a hand operated mouse and corresponding pointer displayed on a viewing screen, a network manager is able to manage hardware and software entities such as file systems, databases, storage devices, peripherals, network data communications devices, etc., associated with the storage area network. In some storage area networks, a network management station and associated management software allows a network administrator or systems manager (a person responsible for managing the storage network) to establish “zones” of related resources within the storage network.
Generally, a zone of resources within a storage network is an association, relation or grouping of resources (e.g., servers, switch channels, portions of data storage) that are arranged according to function or location. By way of example, a network administrator can use conventional vendor-supplied (i.e., manufacturer supplied) storage network management software to configure a zone of ports (data communications channels or paths) within that vendor's data switch to associate certain servers in the data storage network with certain allocations of data storage within one or more of the data storage systems in the data storage network. Thus, the network administrator might, for example, define a zone to include a server or group of servers, a dedicated channel through the data switch (via allocation of one or more ports), and an amount of data storage space in the form of one or more volumes of storage maintained within one or more of the data storage systems. An administrator might create such a zone or many zones in the storage network, for example, for each department (e.g., engineering, accounting, human resources, and the like) within a company.
A data switch (one or more) that channels requests for data between the various data storage devices and server computer systems is generally responsible for zone enforcement. In operation of a typical data switch, each port within the data switch is dedicated to transferring data to and/or from a single respective data storage system or server computer system. To create a zone, the management software causes the data switch to establish a grouping of one or more server ports (i.e., connections between the data switch and a server) with one or more data storage system ports (i.e., connections between the data switch and a data storage system) together into a zone. Generally, resources (servers, switch ports, and portions of data storage systems) within the same zone can “see” or access each other, while resources in different zones cannot access each other. As an example, a server in a first zone can access data storage in the first zone, but not data storage allocated to other zones. Thus, zoning in the context of storage networks operates as a form of access control and provides an organized mechanism of managing and associating amounts of data storage to specific computer systems.
Typically, a network administrator creates a zone of servers and associated storage resources for an intended purpose. For example, an administrator might place accounting servers and accounting data into an accounting zone, while engineering servers and engineering data storage resources might be placed into an engineering zone.